1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic learning machine and, more particularly, to an electronic learning machine which is capable of giving learning problems divided by difficulty level to a student to improve the student's scholastic abilities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The conventional electronic learning machine can give learning problems to a student so as to improve the student's scholastic ability. However, the conventional electronic learning machine is not produced so that the learning machine takes into consideration the student's scholastic ability. As a result, the electronic learning machine gives predetermined standard learning problems to the student irrespective of his/her scholastic abilities.
However, students have different scholastic abilities. Learning problems appropriate to superior students having have high scholastic abilities (difficult learning problems) are too difficult for less gifted students having low scholastic abilities and will undermine their desire to learn. Whereas learning problems appropriate to the skills of the less gifted students (easy learning problems) are too easy and uninteresting to the superior students thereby depriving the superior students of the opportunity to wrestle with problems appropriate to their higher difficulty level of learning.
Hence, a teacher in charge of the student needs to select learning problems from a plurality of learning problems having different levels of difficulty taking into consideration each student's scholastic ability when the teacher and the students use the electronic learning machine. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult for the teacher to select problems to match the skills of each student because selecting problems to match the skills of each student requires intolerably excessive expenditures of time and labor. As a result, the teacher gives a number of the learning problems having different levels of difficulty to all students even though they differ from one another in their scholastic ability.
A group of engineers, including an inventor of this invention, developed a new electric learning machine, disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 189682-89 (published Jul. 28, 1989). Their electric learning machine has a function which limits the easy learning problems to the less gifted students to prevent a waste of time for the superior students. This is done by the electric learning machine obtaining data relating to the scholastic achievement of each student to specified learning problems by giving the specified learning problems to the students and checking right and wrong answers.
However, the electric learning machine having this function is not suitable for the less gifted students because it presents the less gifted student with considerable problems because of the different levels of learning that include difficult learning problems. In this case, the electric learning machine may again defeat the desire to learn, as the less gifted students wrestle with many problems including problems at higher difficulty levels of learning.